You can judge a person by the size of their moral circle. Trump, for instance, has the smallest possible moral circle, containing only him. Be the opposite: expand your circle. Include, for example, animals currently raised for food. We shut them out of our consciences. It's time to bring them in.

Open #postdoc fellowship in my group. Virus replication and cryo-ET. Projects can be tailored to ambitious candidates with diverse backgrounds, so don't hold back from applying! DM for more info. Deadline 8 Feb. Apply here: umustipendie.varbi.com/en/what:job/... #virus #virology #teamtomo #cryoEM

Serious exam equipment this morning.

Very interesting paper from the beautiful city of York, which provides a mechanistic explanation for the epidemiological link between BK polyomavirus infection/replication in kidney transplant recipients, and subsequent urothelial carcinoma. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41337590/

Here's a summary of all the data that supports adding more red meat to your diet

Can HIV become resistant to lenacapavir? An analysis of clinical isolates identifies mutations that shift the capsid protein’s lenacapavir binding pocket and endow resistance, but shows these mutations often come at a high fitness cost. #ScienceTranslationalMedicine https://scim.ag/3LvADXH

I'm just going to say one last thing about this because every time I discuss this topic, it destroys my notifications and makes this platform really difficult for me to use: There is a reason that I correct people about the effects of COVID-19 on the immune system, and it's not because I like to...

RFK Jr. recently changed the vaccine schedule without an ACIP meeting and without new evidence that merited consideration for those changes, in a move that promotes the interests of infectious diseases over those of the public. I want to look at one particular change: Single dose HPV vaccination 🧵

Virus taxonomy increasingly rests on phylogenetic hypotheses, but the trees, alignments, and assumptions behind them are often ephemeral. This post explores what it might look like to make that phylogenetic basis transparent and reproducible, using retroviruses as a case study. shorturl.at/s9aft

Human FcRL5 simultaneously binds two IgG molecules, enabling immune complex recognition and internalization www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

True for every country

Had a quick read of the preprint, and was surprised that they didn't discuss the anatomical site of the DNA sample. HPV16 only really found in genital mucosa (although circulating HPV16 DNA is there when cancer is present). Thoughts, anyone? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Exceptional Boxing Day walk last week up Mt Keen in Scotland. The peak was just above the clouds, with views NW to Lochnagar, and N to Cairngorm ridge.

This is great! Conjugation without pili was always an annoying paradox, and this finding shows that things finally make sense.

And not only in the US - CDC and USAID resources are/were really, really useful for instructors everywhere.

This is the "SEA SHEEP" (Costasiella kuroshimae) & it took the old axiom: "you are what you eat" VERY literally. It eats algae & rather than just digest them, it harvests the chloroplasts & becomes PHOTOSYNTHETIC. Solar slug! Also, some of its cousins can rip their own heads off.

Big shout-out to all the hardworking scientists, technicians and clinical assistants working to rapidly turn around the test results from your samples this festive season. Each sample has a personal story at the end of it, and they know that. #Pathology #Laboratory #Frontline #Healthcare

Five real global health wins in 2025 1.HPV vaccination scaled faster than expected; 2. measles/rubella eliminated in several countries; 3. long-acting HIV PrEP (lenacapavir) approved; 4. progress on TB vaccines/diagnostics; 5. A promising new antimalarial. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

This is a very important point.

This looks good. Neutralising Abs block binding to the uncoating receptor. Similar to EVD68/MFSD6.

It’s a lot easier to say “Lyme, COVID, HIV; all lab leaks” than it is do do the complex work of pathogen evolution, reservoirs, interplay of the human/animal interface, encroachment on wild spaces, etc. It is so embarrassing that this quack is in charge of the FDA 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️

A broadly neutralizing antibody confers cross-genus protection against alphaherpesviruses by inhibiting gB-mediated membrane fusion www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Now that is good news! Very difficult to get UK partner universities, though.

How exercise decreases the risk of cancer and cancer- related mortality by reducing immunosenescence and inflammaging www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Because the issue of population change is so widely misunderstood, here's a short thread which seeks to lay it out simply. It explains why there is almost nothing anyone can do to change the global population trajectory, both as numbers rise, then as they fall. 🧵1/13

BeeCode Berlin, a pioneering citizen science project, helped high school students learn PCR by DNA barcoding honeybees: 🐝 Community centre labs using Bento Lab 🐝 DNA hackathons and poster event 🐝 Subspecies & genetic resilience insights 🔗 Find out more: bento.bio/story/dna-ba...

#NatMicroPicks Elusive insights into Colibactin structure! 🦠🧬🧪 Colibactin alkylates the minor groove of AT-rich DNA, explaining its mutational signature in colorectal cancer #MicroSky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I can honestly say that I, personally, am not publishing too much.

Please peruse this particularly pertinent paper on pesky penguin papilloma and polyomaviruses

Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1099/mgen... 🔗

@microbetv.bsky.social Happy Smallpox Eradication Day! I marked my calendar when the TWiV crew talked about how it deserves to be a holiday. =D

Rabies transmission by kidney transplant - now that is really a freak event. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

From the @wsj.com chief foreign correspondent

Good explainer of how this story is being oversold.

How an influenza virus infects a human cell [via ETH Zurich] 🧪🥼🦠😷⚕️ "Researchers were surprised by one thing: the cells are not passive, simply allowing themselves to be invaded by the influenza virus. Rather, they actively attempt to capture it." ethz.ch/en/news-and-... #flu #virus #human #cell

Long day teaching - 8am start and 7 pm finish! But on the upside, really great to teach such a positive and engaged group of students this afternoon.

#medsky #pedsky #idsky #immunosky #episky I collaborated with exceptionally talented people in infectious diseases to write this Special Article about aluminum salts in childhood vaccines. We review the evidence base for key safety concerns and offer guidance for communication with caregivers.

Really informative and important thread. Hiring and promotion committees need to change the way they work. Maybe ask applicants for their top 2 papers in the last 5yr and actually read them?

Good place to go, Glasgow.

Australia leading the way

‘The clip, which appeared on live television, shows the President of the United States snapping at a female reporter “Quiet, Piggy!”’ From the new Private Eye, out now.

If you'd like to celebrate the biology of viruses - or the fight against viral diseases - this winter, try out our free and updated #VirusSnowflake designs. Please share, and if you have any photos of Virus Snowflakes in your area it would be lovely to see them! cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...

Antimicrobial peptide delivery to lung as peptibody mRNA in anti-inflammatory lipids treats multidrug-resistant bacterial pneumonia - @yizhoudonglab.bsky.social @icahngenomics.bsky.social go.nature.com/3LZS6HD

This is very bad and very depressing news. Habitat loss due to human activity is the main culprit.

Unraveling the mechanism behind the probable extinction of the B/Yamagata lineage of influenza B viruses www.nature.com/articles/s41...

President orders troops to shoot unarmed American children. Perfectly legal, apparently.